ORIGIN AND DIVERSIFICATION OF HINDWINGLESS DAMASTER GROUND BEETLES WITHIN THE JAPANESE ISLANDS AS DEDUCED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL ND5 GENE-SEQUENCES (COLEOPTERA, CARABIDAE)

Genealogical trees have been constructed using mitochondrial ND5 gene sequences of 78 Damaster (s. str) specimens from all over the Japanese Islands. Eight lineages (called races in this paper) have been recogn ized. The races are tightly Linked to geography with sharp distributio n boundaries between them. The races and their distribution ranges do not coincide with those of classical morphology. Based on the observed distribution of the mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and the geohistorica l data, we propose a diversification scenario of Damaster.